lifestyle beauty and fashion

Dealing with stretch marks

I hope you are all having a great day. First let’s have a little update. So this week I am 30 weeks pregnant, up until pregnancy hasn’t been too bad.. of course like in all things in life I have had some bad days but overall I have enjoyed it. However on the day I turned 30 weeks sh*t got real. Suddenly I can’t sleep, I get really hot and if I bend down to grab anything I can’t get back without help. I’m still in love with being pregnant but it’s definitely getting harder. I’ve also found that all I want to do now is clean, organize and prep for baby. I guess this mean the time is near… not quiet sure how I feel about it but I CAN DO THIS!!

So today I thought I would write about quiet a personal topic in pregnancy. It’s something that almost 90% of women go through during pregnancy. I am talking about stretch marks. Throughout my whole first and second trimester I thought that stretch marks were not going to be an issue for me. I was following all of the things I read on how to avoid stretch marks. I was applying my bump butter 3 times a day and also applying bio oil to my thighs, hips, butt and bump. Sometimes I had so much of the stuff on I honestly felt like a slug, but I thought to myself “I have to do this so that I don’t get stretch marks”.

Fast forward to 28 weeks of pregnancy, officially in my third trimester. I was sitting at my desk at work and I noticed that my tummy below my belly button was itchy. I tried to look at my tummy but I couldn’t see that far down so I asked my friend to have a look and see if she could see something. I thought it was going to be a spot or a scratch. My friend said she just saw a red dot so I continued with my day like nothing had happened. When I got home that evening I was still quiet itchy so I went into my bedroom lifted my shirt and looked at my tummy in front of my mirror and my jaw dropped. I saw 4 small stretch marks. I grabbed my bio oil in a panic and almost bathed in it. I kept checking the mirror for the rest of the evening hoping that they had gone.

I was so upset and angry about them and also with myself. I felt like I had done something wrong. To be honest I felt disgusting. Then as I sat on my bed feeling upset I suddenly thought of how guilty I felt because I was so angry at these stupid little marks. I started to think of how shallow I was being because of my reaction to them. I started thinking of all the people out there that wish they could be pregnant and do anything to be in the position that I was in but there I was almost in tears over a few marks on my skin. For the next few days I went back and forth with myself feeling sad about them one minute and suddenly feeling ashamed for my feelings.
A couple days went by like that and i kept thinking that something was wrong with me for these strange feelings. So I decided to talk to someone about them to see if it was normal to feel this way. I was feeling upset and feeling guilty about being upset all at the same time. The only person that kept springing to mind every time I thought about this was Hayley from Hayleypaigeblogs and YouTube. I remember watching a video of her upset about her stretch marks and I thought maybe she could help me with this topic. So i emailed her thinking there was probably little to no chance of her replying but to be honest just writing that email made me feel a little better. The next day I was looking through my emails and noticed her name in my inbox, I immediately opened it not only because I absolutely love her, her little family and all the awesome vlogs she puts up but also I was really excited to see what her response was to my email. I read it a few times. She wrote kind words and assured me that it would be ok. It was simple but enough to make me realise that stretch marks are so unimportant and my pregnancy was much more beautiful than stretch marks. It made me realise just how lucky I was to be carrying this wonderful gift god gave me and just how happy and excited I am to meet her. Hayley also made me realise that it’s normal to feel upset but that as soon as I have my little girl it will be worth it.

Suddenly I felt like a massive weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and I wore my stretch marks with pride. To me they are now a reminder of just how lucky I am.

I am so grateful to her for her kind words. She honestly and truly made me feel so wonderful.. if she ever gets to read this ‘Thank you Hayley. I will forever feel greatful to you for making me feel like the most beautiful mama in the whole world’

Now I am not as hard on myself about moisturising. I do still put my bio oil on everyday to prevent my skin from getting dry but I only do it in the morning and before I go to bed. I also try not itch my tummy because I don’t want to make them sore or irritate my skin but I am ok with having them. Stretch marks no longer bother me.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this post and hope it may help any of you going through the same thing.

I will be back soon with another post! If you guys have any other tips or want to share your experiences with me then please comment below or if you prefer you can email me on lifemakeupstyle@hotmail.com